1. What do you do?
I lead a cross-functional team of eight engineers, data scientists, and product experts in building Cleverbridge's state-of-the-art customer lifetime value engine. My team of experts comes from around the world — the U.S., Ukraine, Russia, and Germany — and is based across Europe and the U.S.
2. What's the coolest part of your job?
I love working across so many different cultures and areas of expertise. While we focus on A.I. and machine learning, every individual comes at the technology from a different angle and perspective because of their varied experiences and backgrounds. It is a lot of fun working to bring everyone into an aligned vision for the future of the technology.
3. Why are you passionate about it?
Everyone has seen the movie about the A.I. that learns the wrong patterns and takes over the world. I work every day to prevent that from happening. Really.
I previously worked at a financial technology startup and built an A.I. to detect customer emotions in text. I implemented strict guidelines on how those predictions should and should not be used. Imagine an automated bot that reacts to your emotions and convinces you to make certain decisions about your finances. That is a scenario that could easily fall totally off the rails if not aggressively questioned at every turn. This is a great example of how both my bachelor's in international affairs and modern languages and my master's in analytics equally shaped a product I built.
4. Which skills from Georgia Tech and your international affairs and German degrees have helped you be successful in this career?
My language skills help me communicate with my colleagues more effectively. Some days we work totally in German, and some days totally in English. Other times, we have a tricky engineering concept, and it is helpful for colleagues to explain it in their native language.
My international affairs skills help me navigate the different ways that Europe and the U.S. (and other regions where Cleverbridge does business) treat the use and storage of data. The E.U. has already implemented world-class data protection and privacy standards, and draft legislation already exists for the same type of treatment of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
My degrees from Ivan Allen College and Georgia Tech enable me to build systems that will operate in both today's and tomorrow's legislative landscapes for any region on the planet and to think critically about how the technology I am developing with my teams will impact society.
5. What's your #1 tip for students and alumni interested in your field?
Use your alumni network! I landed my first job out of school with The Home Depot's e-commerce division by calling up some industrial engineering friends of mine, and they helped me land a role on a team managed by another Georgia Tech industrial engineering graduate. In fact, I even got my current job with Cleverbridge through a connection made at an alumni networking event in Cologne!
Shannon Kehoe graduated with a Bachelor of Science in International Affairs and Modern Languages in 2015 and a Master of Science in Analytics, also from Georgia Tech, in 2019. Explore more Ivan Allen College alumni careers around the world.
